Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-05-07
TRADE And LABOR.
Business, Workingmen and Wages--COp.
dition Of the Industrial Field.
Business Halting--Mil aud Factories
Or wded--LabOr Well EMPLOYED.

Industrial activity has been I'M
settled by the new railroad law, and
manufacturers, shippers and con-
sumers are much unsettled over the
effect Of the new freight rates will have
over each OF their interests. The gen
eral trade conditions are excellent.
Manufacturers throughout the country
re busy from Maine to Texas. During
The past few weeks comparatively few
new orders were placed.
Shippers have made no effort to hold
forward supplies on account of the un-
settled rates. The reports from vari
Gus industrial centers are as follows:
Boston, lumber is active, while quiet.
Boots and shoes are selling well. The
cotton products are advancing in price.
At Chicago railway material is in very
active demand. Coal is quiet, lumber
active, and It general feeling of conf
dence prevails.
At Philadelphia there has been a
general falling off in business at mills
and factories, though they are crowded
with work and everything promises
well.
AT P~ittsburg iron mills, glass works
Aand manufacturing establishments are
all oversoid. New enterprises are
springing up, at Louisville industrial
activity is general and business is
brisk. In ST. Louis a quiet weeks
business has been done. and at Kansas
City lumber and builders hardware are
more active than ever. In Milwaukee
business has been checked by an adj
vance in freight. In Omaha reports
are all good. In New Orleans there
has been a decided falling off in bust
ness
A great deal Of combining, negotiat-
ing, and pooling is quietly going on
among railroads, in spite of the inter-
state law. This new law will compel
railroads to consult each others mutual
interest. The volume of railroad traf-
fic will very soon increase.
FIR the first quarter of the year 1884,
600 men went on IA strike against 1885,
600 in 1886. Wages have been advanc.
ed 10 to 10 per cent. throughout the
United States, within the past two
years.
At Cincinnati. 1900 carpenters and
hod carriers struck for AN advance. A
strike is threatened among 1000 glass
workers at Fittsburg. At Boston the
the Building Trades will work nine
hours only.
The fight still goes on between the
Massachusetts boot and shoe makers
and their workmen. There is only one
thing that machinery has not been able
to do for a shoe, and that is to last
fine shoes wi hout tacks. At last a
machine ha. been perfected, which it
Is said viii do this work. The past
quarter shoe business shows Il mark
ed Improvement over the first quarter
of last year.
A strike occurred in a German man
ufactnring district for a reduction of
hours Of labor, which are now from
$50 a. m, to $50 p. m. Industrial
agitations OF "A large Gale are threat
ened Il ere, because of the increasing
opportunities Of labor. Surplus labor
is not quite SO abundant.
Illinois has 634 labor organizations,
with Il membership of ll4,365, of whom
two-thil ds are foreigners and m half
are Knights. OF the Knights 20 per
sent are skilled workmen. Last year
the workingmen of Illinois lost, in
strikes, 1.32S.2 73 days, worth in wages
1884, 900. There were 2l2 strikes,
involving 50,502 workers.
New York is credited with 30S, 900
wage workers; Philadelphia, 100000;
Chicago, l06. 600, Boston, $4,000; Gin
~onnati, $500; Pitt,burg. rs 500, and
st. Louis, 42.500. Minneapolis, which
il boastlng more loudly than any city
~ the continent about itself and its
Bming greatness, has only a corporals
guard OF 1900 outside of saw mills and
oar shops.
Two-thirds Of oil the hands engaged
in the hosiery and knit goods manu-
facture have received an advance OF .
per cont. since 1885. Cigar makers Z
to 10 per cent. more. Workers in meat
packing establishments II per cent.
nOre.
The employing carpenters and ram
ers of New York have conceded $500
per day.
So far 1850 wage-workers have
struck this month, of whom over one
half are in Chicago.
Northern capital is finding abundant
employment in Texas. A $250,000
compress is TO be erected at DemopO-
lis; another is to be built at Sheffield,
Alabama.
Since 1884 there has been an in
Tease of 10000 hands in New Eng
land cotton mills.